HELP! Car overheating(not a bad waterpump) :)

[tsSVT]

Alright here's the story. (2000 SVT 2.5) I replaced all of my hoses, new waterpump, new thermostat, new temp sensor, and a used radiator to replace mine that had resevoir tube fitting broken off.

I had the radiator flow and pressure tested before installation. It tested fine.

While I was replacing the waterpump the metal disk that sits in the housing fell out. I'm not sure if it supposed to be able to come out or not. I couldn't remember anyone mentioning it as an issue in the past so I put a little rtv on it to keep it in place and reassembled the pump. This may be an issue that I need to address, but I dount that it is related to the overheating.

The car did fine for a day or two, then started overheating a little. I could turn on the A/C to make the other fan kick on and that would take it down to normal temp. Now it has got to the point that it ovevrheats regardless. The first issue I am seeing is that the low speed fan takes a long time to come on. The car is overheating before it comes on.

My biggest concern is that the radiator isn't getting warm at all. If I understand correctly how our fan system works, the resistor on the bottom corner has to get warm before the it will let the fan kick on.

The thermostat is opening allowing coolant to flow, and as far as I can tell the waterpump is creating pressure. That is what leads me to think that there is some kind of blockage in the radiator itself.
I think I am going to pull the radiator tonight and have a radiator repair shop pull the tanks off, and take my original one with me and see if they can either replace the fitting or the end tank itself.

If any body has any ideas please let me know. I am pretty short on options as to the source of the problem.

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[2X95SEs]

Alright here's the story. (2000 SVT 2.5) I replaced all of my hoses, new waterpump, new thermostat, new temp sensor, and a used radiator to replace mine that had resevoir tube fitting broken off.

I had the radiator flow and pressure tested before installation. It tested fine.

While I was replacing the waterpump the metal disk that sits in the housing fell out. I'm not sure if it supposed to be able to come out or not. I couldn't remember anyone mentioning it as an issue in the past so I put a little rtv on it to keep it in place and reassembled the pump. This may be an issue that I need to address, but I dount that it is related to the overheating.

The car did fine for a day or two, then started overheating a little. I could turn on the A/C to make the other fan kick on and that would take it down to normal temp. Now it has got to the point that it ovevrheats regardless. The first issue I am seeing is that the low speed fan takes a long time to come on. The car is overheating before it comes on.

My biggest concern is that the radiator isn't getting warm at all. If I understand correctly how our fan system works, the resistor on the bottom corner has to get warm before the it will let the fan kick on.

The thermostat is opening allowing coolant to flow, and as far as I can tell the waterpump is creating pressure. That is what leads me to think that there is some kind of blockage in the radiator itself.
I think I am going to pull the radiator tonight and have a radiator repair shop pull the tanks off, and take my original one with me and see if they can either replace the fitting or the end tank itself.

If any body has any ideas please let me know. I am pretty short on options as to the source of the problem.

Thanks in advance for your help.

The volute is needed in the pump to guide the flow. I work in the industrial HVAC field and I see them in front of impellers all the time. They wouldn't pump refrigerant without them. Should be peaned in place - my guess is the RTV isn't holding. Seems to be the only logical fault because everything else is wide open.
Also check that the impeller is secure to the shaft. I've seen some that you can turn by hand.

 

[tsSVT]

Ah, so that's what that is called, thanks! I'll pull the pump and take a look. I guess it may be wise to grab another pump housing...great

 

[silver rocket]

My SVT is having the same problem, it get a little hot while running and the fans do kick on at the right time but my temp gauge goes a little hotter than normal.
When i replaced my waterpump, i noticed that my volute fell out as well. Are they supposed to be held in place and non moveable?
If so, that seems easy enough to replace the housing. As for the resistor, its relay is grounded by the PCM not by heat expansion.

 

[2X95SEs]

My water pump blew up when winding out my engine on the highway. I noticed the temp heading to the rafters so I shut it down and had it towed home. Had a buddy with a Mystique and a Contour - both engines had bad waterpumps. His wife kept driving it while it in the RED and toasted the engine. His car had the loose impeller which made it run hot.

 

[silver rocket]

My water pump blew up when winding out my engine on the highway. I noticed the temp heading to the rafters so I shut it down and had it towed home. Had a buddy with a Mystique and a Contour - both engines had bad waterpumps. His wife kept driving it while it in the RED and toasted the engine. His car had the loose impeller which made it run hot.

I have always kept an eye on my gauges, no matter what car i happen to be driving.
My water pump is an BAT metal, and i forgot that i did not replace it, when i saw it was metal i left it alone but i do have another brand new BAT pump sitting collecting dust.
Do you think i should replace my waterpump and housing and hope that fixes the problem? There is nothing else i can think of that would cause this annoying problem.

 

[2X95SEs]

I have always kept an eye on my gauges, no matter what car i happen to be driving.
My water pump is an BAT metal, and i forgot that i did not replace it, when i saw it was metal i left it alone but i do have another brand new BAT pump sitting collecting dust.
Do you think i should replace my waterpump and housing and hope that fixes the problem? There is nothing else i can think of that would cause this annoying problem.

As long as you know it works, and there are no left over pieces from the previous pump in the system, leave it be.
How do you know the thermostat is opening all the way, did you test it?
Does your heater get hot? That's one way to check if the pump is working.

 

[marvinstockman]

I don't remember, but do these engines have a bleed valve to bleed off air when you fill engine and radiator. If they do, and you didn't, you'll overheat.

 

[2X95SEs]

I don't remember, but do these engines have a bleed valve to bleed off air when you fill engine and radiator. If they do, and you didn't, you'll overheat.

I leave a heater hose open when I refill the system till I see antifreeze come out. That way I know I got rid of most of the air. After getting the engine warmed up I shut it down and overfill the tank. When it cools down it will draw in a good portion of the coolent. Takes a couple of warm ups and cool downs to purge the system.

 

[tsSVT]

The T-stat is new and was functioning before. I could tell it was allowing coolant to pass when it got hot. As it turns out my BRAND NEW pump's impeller busted. I guess when Bosch copied Ford's pump they copied the early one I replaced the pump and housing with an updated pump, and it's been doing fine for the last few days. In retrospect I should have known it was the pump, I just didn't think it would fail so quickly. When I refilled the coolant I made sure to run it a few times like 2X95Es does. I've been aware of bleeding the air out of the cooling system for a long time. If that had been the issue the car would have started overheating immediately after the service, not several days later.

 

[2X95SEs]

The T-stat is new and was functioning before. I could tell it was allowing coolant to pass when it got hot. As it turns out my BRAND NEW pump's impeller busted. I guess when Bosch copied Ford's pump they copied the early one I replaced the pump and housing with an updated pump, and it's been doing fine for the last few days. In retrospect I should have known it was the pump, I just didn't think it would fail so quickly. When I refilled the coolant I made sure to run it a few times like 2X95Es does. I've been aware of bleeding the air out of the cooling system for a long time. If that had been the issue the car would have started overheating immediately after the service, not several days later.

Years ago I installed a brand new thermostat in my VW. A few miles down the road the temperature gauge hit the rafters - I shut the engine down and coasted off the road. Had the car towed home and found that the thermostat spring had snapped and it slammed shut.

 

[gmorrell]

I'll second or third that the water pump volute must absolutely be in place for the pump to function effectively. Mine was loose when I swapped pumps long ago, and I pulled the housing and staked it in place by upsetting the Aluminum around the volute edge with a center punch. I think I upset it in a dozen or 15 places around the volute.

I've been having an overheating problem of late, running 70/75MPH on the highway, AC off, the oil will head to 250F and the coolant to 225F (Autometer full sweep gauges). If I turn on the vent to full fan and the cabin temp control over to hot, the water temp drops quickly down to 195/200F and the oil eventually comes down as well, but it about kills me. This pretty much tells me that the cooling system plumbing itself is OK, but I probably have an airflow problem up front. And indeed, I did.

I pulled off the bumper cover, drained the cooling system and dropped the radiator out of the car a few evenings ago.

The AC condenser had a patch of black, furry/fibrous crap on it about a foot square, couldn't see light through it, blew that out backwards with the pressure washer.

The radiator had several smaller patches clogging the fins, mostly in areas that weren't behind the big patch on the AC condenser. Internally, the radiator was gorgeous, not a bit of corrosion or scale, clean and smooth as a baby's bottom inside. Not bad for 11 years and 100K miles.

This cooling system was a hurting unit, air-flow wise. I'm screening the upper and lower grills with some Black Aluminum window screen, this will help keep out the big pieces like bugs and rocks. I screened the Taurus SHO radiator after I ditched the AC and installed the oil, trans and PS coolers, and it really kept things clean afterward.

The ducting and baffling on the CSVT is all pretty good from the factory, it's more than you usually see on a passenger car, so Ford must have known the cooling system was a little marginal. The radiator support sheet metal has a 5" wide beam running cross-wise right across the center of the AC condenser, less than an inch from the AC condenser's front surface, which is sort of dumb, IMO, as it probably blocks a fifth of the condenser's total area.

Both radiator and AC condenser aren't the old style straight-parallel fins, rather they have the flat tubes with the zig-zag fin style, so there's no chance of using a fin comb. This isn't the first time I've seen an AC condenser clogged full of crap in a car with 100K miles on the clock.

I'll have it all back together this evening, will report back, but I'm pretty certain I fixed the problem.